Sweaty conditions

To commemorate this day, on which there was the first snow fall for this winter season in Finland (!), I would like to comment on some of the more long-lasting effects of the inherent temperature difference of the two countries. People are often asking me on how am I coping with the hot weather.

To begin with, people seem to adjust to hot weather differently from person to person. I am willing to bet that there is some hot weather gene controlling individual's capability on handling the temperature changes. I have been making an empirical observations on people around me (family members, colleagues, friends, people visiting us -- mostly people who do not originate from Singapore) and I am ready to make a hypotheses that from this study group about 50% of people embrace hot weather without any issues -- some actually seem to be enjoying it -- and then there is other half to whom hot weather seems to be more of an unbearable burden (with obviously a number of individuals to various degrees in between these two extreme cases).

Luckily I have seemingly been born with Resistance to Fire +20 (using terminology from role playing games). This particular perk seems to have negative correlation with sweating skills. People who sweat extensively are understandably more ticked off by the hot weather conditions than those who don't. Case in point being my two sons: the younger one can be found bathing in sweat while sitting passively on a couch watching Moomin show on YouTube, whereas the older one hardly breaks a sweat even after running wildly around and fighting invisible zombies with karate moves.

There is also clearly an element of adjustment over time. I would like to share a couple of somewhat scary findings from thorough self examination: is it really this quickly that a person from particularly cold corner of the world starts to acclimatize to so very different thermometer readings?

Observation #1: I was leaving work just the other day while wearing my typical work attire: long sleeved shirt and trousers -- it is a relief that a suit with a tie & jacket (AKA standard consultant coveralls) is not generally expected as everyday dressing code. Even though the sun was out, I realized that it didn't feel particularly hot outside. My feeling was justifiable as it was mere 32 degrees.

Observation #2: This year has surely been Year of a Water Snake since it has been raining more than normally even during the drier months between the monsoons. It is not once that I have felt it has been way too cold outside to go for a swim on a cloudy day. Understandably 30+ degree weather raises goose bumps.  (On a totally unrelated note I have noticed an uncontrollable urge to vacate the pool immediately if it starts to rain. I wonder why is that. To prevent myself from getting wet?)

Observation #3: Quite early on I stopped using air con at nights. Mild night time temperature of 28 degrees feels cool enough to sleep well -- as opposed to having air con freezing your feet or head.

Admittedly there has been at least one recorded moment of frustration with me suffering from the exceptionally warm weather. While picking up my son from school I was standing on the school yard way too early at pretty much during the warmest time of the day and this given day happened to be particularly hot one. It tends to get royally hot and humid if it hasn't rained at least a bit in the past few days. I begged for an approval to whine a little from a friend of mine in Finland with whom I was chatting to pass the time. For some unknown reason that approval was never provided.

No squating allowed

I have already blogged about Singaporean toilet adventures a few times before. I promise you this will be the last time!

Just wanted to share a warning sign which you probably would not expect to see in a workplace toilet in Finland.

Then again Finns can have part of the action with funny signs. This one was apparently found in one restaurant toilet in Finland. Obviously makes you wonder that there must have been a good reason(s) for a sign defining an appropriate toilet behaviour to appear on the wall in the first place.

Found this from imgur.com --> http://imgur.com/QKLuVtN

Now if I really put my mind to it, I guess squating over Western type toilet bowl is not that bad offense after all...